ADF

ADF STAFF No one knows the dangerous, porous borderlands of Kenya and Somalia like its residents, and in the face of increasing terrorist attacks and recruitment, members of the community are coming together to protect themselves. A new initiative launched by Womankind Kenya, a Garissa-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) that focuses on women and children, aims to bolster stability on both sides of the border. Its goal is to bring communities together to communicate, collaborate and enhance their ability to resolve conflicts peacefully. In a social media post on May 29, Womankind Kenya Director Abdullahi Mohamed announced the launch of the…

ADF STAFF Authorities in the Central African Republic revoked a Chinese mining company’s license in the southern town of Mingala in June over concerns it was cooperating with armed militias. The CAR’s mining ministry accused Daqing SARL, a Chinese gold and diamond mining company, of sharing “intelligence with armed groups, illegal exploitation, illegal introduction of foreign subjects into mining areas, non-payment of taxes and lack of activity reports,” according to a government decree. Rebel groups in the CAR have long fought with Chinese and other foreign companies that seek to exploit the country’s abundant resources of gold and diamonds. The…

ADF STAFF The Tunisian Armed Forces are upgrading their primary training area at Ben Ghilouf with support from the United States. The upgrade is in its third phase, according to a report from Military Africa. It involves the construction of a new life support area, including seven barracks designed to house 630 people, and two mess halls capable of accommodating 430 people at a time. Earlier stages of the renovation included upgrading a training range, a new range observation tower, a canopy for tactical briefings and a helicopter landing zone. A new range operations center is designed to improve coordination…

ADF STAFF Four years after fighting ended in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, land mines and booby-trapped explosives continue to maim and kill civilians. Over the past five years, more than 400 people have been killed or injured by hidden explosives across Libya. At least 35 of those explosions were in 2023. The majority of the victims were children like 10-year-old Mohamed Farhat. Mohamed and his friends were playing in a garden near their home in southern Tripoli when they picked up a piece of what they thought was scrap metal. The explosion sent three of the friends to the…

ADF STAFF Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria killed 20 young men in one of a series of early June attacks in the mountainous Shiroro communities of Niger State. Witnesses in the town of Bassa said Boko Haram fighters attacked in broad daylight on June 6, shot the victims at close range and beheaded 10 of them. Residents were forced to hold the severed heads as the terrorists took pictures and made video recordings. “They told us that anybody who refused to be recruited into their fold would be given a similar treatment,” an anonymous witness told Nigeria’s Premium Times online…

ADF STAFF Authorities in the Central African Republic found a 19-year-old artisanal miner’s body burned and decapitated in the town of Koki, in the prefecture of Ouham. He was one of at least 20 artisanal miners who were killed in mid-June after failing to attend a meeting called by members of Russia’s paramilitary Africa Corps, formerly the Wagner Group. After the meeting, the mercenaries attacked the mining sites surrounding Koki, according to the CAR’s Corbeau News Centrafrique (CNC). It was not the first massacre committed by Russian mercenaries in Koki. About a week later, Africa Corps fighters called a meeting…

GUEST OPINION AND ANALYSIS CHIKONDI CHIDZANJA Since the announcement of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) drawdown from Cabo Delgado province, there have been various criticisms about the intervention. Some have called the withdrawal premature; some have labeled it a regional failure and others have questioned the SADC’s competence while accusing it of turning away from a terrorist threat on its doorstep. The criticisms reached a crescendo recently with the resurgence of terror attacks in the area. However, what the critics miss is hidden in plain sight: the conduct of host country Mozambique. The host country…

ADF STAFF Russia has deployed 1,800 fighters to eastern Libya in what it hopes will become a base of power to exert influence in other parts of the continent. Some of those deployed were Russian soldiers, and others were mercenaries with Russia’s Africa Corps, still widely identified by its former name, the Wagner Group. The deployment came after a group of Russian ships delivered thousands of tons of weapons and military equipment at the eastern port of Tobruk in April. Both events came after meetings between Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the Wagner Group’s new boss Gen. Andrei Averyanov,…

ADF STAFF Russia is exploiting politically divided Libya, with its abundant natural resources, to exert more influence on the continent, especially in the Sahel region, a recent report said. The Kremlin’s work will be headed by Africa Corps, formerly known as the Wagner Group, which will be based in Libya. The group plans to spread a new form of “Russian colonialism,” according to a recent report by the Royal United Services Institute. “The Russian playbook has been remarkably consistent for decades,” the report said. “The overall approach is to use information operations and active measures to polarize a target population,…

ADF STAFF Mired in their fight against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) appears ready to grant Russia a long-sought foothold on the Red Sea in exchange for weapons. “The Army is in desperate need of weapons, ammunitions and spare parts for its Russian-made warplanes,” Sudanese analyst Osman Al Mirghany told the North Africa Post. “Offering Russia a naval base in return for them is its best option.” Sudanese officials met with their Russian counterparts on the sidelines of the recent International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg to discuss establishing a Russian naval base. The…